White Clock

Chapter One: Kat Gains

My mother had it all. Grace, wisdom, charm, great support, resources, heart. She could be called the modern-day Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird. Kat knew how to make things work to her benefit. To this day, my older brother, Lyle, and I still try to figure her out.

One thing that puzzles us is the fact that Kat managed to keep it together all the way through the events that led up to the invasion of Berlin in 2017. Any normal person would have snapped and killed someone by the time we got out of there. But Kat managed to keep it all together. As a result, we all were able to escape from Berlin in the night without any harm. Life in the states was hard for Lyle and me, but Kat made it all work out for all of us. We’re still trying to figure out how.

Kat came from a contradictory background. She and her sister, Aunt Maggie, grew up in middle-class Bristol, England. Their parents got divorced when they were four and two. Kat and Aunt Maggie lived with their father most of the time in Liverpool. They barely got to see their mother at all. My grandfather worked two jobs to support his daughters. The girls in return studied hard in school to pursue the careers that they wanted. Aunt Maggie became a doctor and Kat became an English teacher.

Both sisters stayed really close to each other. Kat told me it was because she and Aunt Maggie were friends first before they were sisters. And I mean, they were and still are scary close. Not in a perverted sense of the word, of course! They just told each other many things they wouldn’t normally tell anyone else. Kat acted more mature than Aunt Maggie did despite age differences suggesting otherwise. Aunt Maggie always relied on Kat for everything. It’s even been joked that Auntie wouldn’t last long without Kat around. Aunt Maggie didn’t even date until her younger sister did. It looked like Auntie would be single for a long time. Kat never really seemed interested into the whole love-relationship thing. She still doesn’t really to this day. I even heard some of her students and our neighbors asking about her sexuality. But back then, Kat surprised everyone when she got married to my father.

I barely remember my father. He died the day before my third birthday. Lyle claims that he remembers him well. So, I rely on his stories of father to build up what keep of person he was in my mind. Sometimes, I ask Kat as well. I combine the two stories to get a complete picture. Anyway, back to Kat. She raised Lyle and me all by herself. Even though single parenting is common nowadays, many of our neighbors were old-fashioned. They always frowned upon Kat for not remarrying so that they could live up to their ideal family values. I asked her about that one day.

“Kat,” I said to her when I was seven years old one summer in Berlin. “Why don’t you get remarry?” She smiled at me kindly on that question. She lightly patted me on the head as well.

“Because,” Kat replied. “I just don’t feel the big need to do so.” I looked at her still.

“But why do the neighbors want you to get married?” I asked her. Kat smiled at me again.

“They just believe that I shouldn’t take care of you and your brother alone,” she replied. “But, I’ll tell you a little secret.” I looked on at her with my little seven-year-old eyes.

“Oooo! What is it?” I asked her excited. Kat leaned in close to my little gold pierced ear so much that it almost tickled.

“I have done just fine on my own for the past nine years,” she whispered to me. “And besides, you and Lyle wouldn’t want to share me with anyone else, would you?” I shook my head back and forth as she pulled away from my ear. Kat smiled at me once again.

“Didn’t think so!” she said aloud. I smiled at her like the innocent child that I was. I didn’t ask her ever again about her love life. I just took it as it was from there on out.

I didn’t realize how great Kat was until the events that led up to the invasion began to unfold.